or Sehsa hills seem to be lost in the eastern gauts near this, but no hills or rocks were observed in the immediate neighbourhood. Mr. Geddes unfortunately was travelling mostly at night, and has not stated if the wood was petrified by lime or silex. When in this direction in 1828 I was informed that hot springs existed in the neighbourhood. I am also informed that a rich mine of fossil bivalve shells has been lately discovered in the Salem hills. Such facts certainly should not be concealed, at a time when India is looked to for facts to confirm or refute the principal speculations on which geologists are divided, and when Russia is enjoying the honor of having successfully explored the regions of Asia lately added to her dominions, and has at the same time been rewarded by the discovery of some of the richest mines of the precious metals in the world.*

J. G. MALCOLMSON,

Reference to the Drawing.

No. 1, Gawilgerh shells. No. 2, Sagar fossil.

Assistant Surgeon.

No. 3, a recent species of Voluta. No. 4, Section of No. 6.
No. 5, Section magnified, No. 6, Fossil from Won-sandstone.

IV.-An Historical account of the Christians on the Malabar
Coast, by the Venerable Archdeacon Robinson, a. M.
PART 4TH.

(Continued from the 269th page of our 4th Number.) The diocesan synod of the churches of St. Thomas, summoned by proclamation of the Archbishop of Goa, assembled at the church of Diamper on the 20th of June 1599. We have an exact and authentic account of the acts of the synod, written immediately

"That the system of M. Elie de Beaumont is directly opposed to a fun"damental principle, vindicated by Mr. Lyell, cannot admit of doubt. And I "have decided to the best of my judgment, in favour of the former author." " Mr. Boué and other able writers have opposed the views of this "eminent geologist; they deny him the merit of being the first to point out, "that different formations and masses of land have been elevated at distant " and separate periods, and reject that part of his system which asserts the 66 synchronous elevation of distant mountain chains parallel to each other. "Before we are warranted in arriving at general conclusions on this latter 66 point, numerous facts must be collected, and we can but urge all our work66 ing brethren to try the adequacy of M. de Beaumont's ingenious theory, "by an appeal to nature; M. de Humboldt believes, that the four great "chains of Asiatic mountains are parallel to one another, and that circum"stance tends powerfully to confirm the theory. As however, the personal "observations of this traveller have not extended beyond the Altai, we must "still look for evidence whereon the synchronism of the elevations of these "mountains may rest to our Indian geologists, whose exertions will naturally "be stimulated to attempt the solution of the problem. Russia has been be "fore hand with us in exploring their newly acquired portion of Asia." Professor Sedgwick's anniversary address to the Geological Society, Journal of the Asiatic Society, November, 1832.

after its celebration, by order of the synod itself, and printed at the end of the History of the Archbishop's visitation by Antonio de Gouvea, an Augustinian monk, and Professor of Divinity at Goa. The value of this document is very great to the protestant churches of the west, not only as recording the tyrannical violence with which the Romanists endeavoured to impose their yoke on a foreign church, the diocese of another Patriarchate, but chiefly as bearing ample testimony to the great number of points of doctrine and discipline, in which they differ equally with ourselves from the corruptions of Rome. We are accused of innovation and modern heresy ; but here, according to the written testimony of our adversaries themselves, is a church wonderfully preserved by the merciful providence of the Divine Saviour in the midst of a heathen land from the earliest and purest ages--in all probability from the days of the Apostles, without any communication or intercourse with the churches of Europe; and yet agreeing in very many of the most essential points in which the protestants of Europe have resisted the corruptions of the Romanists. Those points, as collected from Gouvea's history are briefly these. "They are said, 1. Not to adore Images; 2. To hold but three Sacraments, baptism, the eucharist, and "orders; 3. To make no use of oils. 4. To have had no knowledge of confirmation or extreme unction. 5. To abhor auricu"lar confession. 6. To hold many enormous errors about the "eucharist, insomuch that the author of the history saith, he is "inclined to believe, that the hereticks of our times, (meaning "Protestants) the revivers of all forgotten errors, and ignorances, "might have had their doctrine about the eucharist from them. "7. To ordain such as have been married several times, and those "who had married widows, and to approve of her priests marrying as often as they have a mind. 8. That she abhors the Pope and "the church of Rome as Anti-christian, in pretending to a superiority and jurisdiction over all other churches."*

The Synod was opened by the Archbishop, declaring the objects for which it was convened to be the extirpation of heresy and error, the reduction of the churches of St. Thomas to the obedience of the See of Rome, and the general reformation of abuses both among the clergy and the people. The first day of the session was chiefly occupied with the celebration of High Mass, which was performed with great solemnity, and the enaction of certain regulations for the conduct of the Synod in its future deliberations.

* Geddes.

On the second day, the Archbishop, after declaring that the Synod should in all things be governed by the holy canons and general councils, and especially the council of Trent, kneeled down before the altar, in his pontifical robes but without his mitre, and made the following confession of faith, in his own name, as Metropolitan. The same declaration and oath was afterwards exacted from the Syrian Archdeacon and all the clergy both present and absent.

After reciting the Nicene Creed, he thus proceeded" I do firmly receive and embrace all Apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions, and all the observances and constitutions of the said church; I admit the Holy Scriptures in that sense wherein it has ever been, and is still held by Mother Church, to whom it belongeth to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures; neither will I either receive or interpret it but according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers."

I do confess likewise, that there are seven true and proper Sacraments of the New Testament, instituted by Christ our Lord, which are all necessary to the health of mankind, though not to every particular person; they are, baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, order, penance, matrimony, and extreme unction, which do all confer grace on those that receive them worthily; and of these seven Sacraments, that baptism, confirmation, and orders, are to be received but once, neither can they be repeated without great sacrilege.

I admit and receive all the customs, rites, and ceremonies, received and approved of in the Roman Church, in the solemn administration of the said seven Sacraments, and do also receive and embrace all in general, and every thing in particular, that has been defined and declared concerning original sin, and justification, in the Holy Council of Trent.

I do likewise confess, that in the mass there is offered to God a true and proper sacrifice of pardon both for the quick and the dead; and that in the most Holy Sacrament of the eucharist, there is the true, real, and substantial body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that the whole substance of the bread is by consecration turned into the body of Christ, and the whole substance of the wine into his blood; which conversion the Catholic church calls transubstantiation moreover, I do confess, that under each species Christ is entire, and the true sacrament is received.

I do constantly hold and confess, that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls which are cleansing from their sins do receive benefit from the prayers and devotions of the faithful.

I do likewise affirm, that the souls of the just and faithful, which at their departure out of this life, have entirely satisfied for the punishment due to the sins that they have committed as also those in Purgatory which have made an end of satisfying for their sins according to the divine pleasure and ordination; as also those who after baptism have committed no sin, do at the moment of their death go immediately into Heaven, where they behold God as he is and I do condemn, and anathematize the heresy of those, who think that the souls of the just are in a terrestrial paradise till the day of judgment; and that the damned are not tormented any otherwise than by the certainty they have of the torments they are to enter into after the day of judgment.

.

And I do confess, and affirm, that the Saints now reigning with Christ in Heaven, are to be reverenced, and invoked, and that they offer prayers to God for us, whose relicks are likewise to be reverenced on earth: and moreover, that the images of our Lord Christ, and of our Lady the glorious Virgin Mary, and of all the other saints, are to be kept, used, and reverenced, with due honour and veneration.

I do also believe, that our Lady the most Holy Virgin Mary is the proper and true mother of God, and ought to be called so by the faithful, for having brought forth according to the flesh, without any pain or passion, the true Son of God, and that she always continued a virgin, in, and after her deliverance, having never been defiled by any actual sin.

I do confess, that the power of granting indulgences was left to the Church by our Lord Jesus Christ; the use whereof I do affirm to be healthful and profitable to all christian people.

I do acknowledge the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Roman church to be the head, mother and mistress of all other churches in the world; and do hold all that are not subject and obedient to her, to be heretical, schismatical, and disobedient to our Lord Jesus Christ, and his commands, and to the order that he left in the church, and to be aliens from eternal salvation.

I do promise and swear true obedience to the Pope, the Roman bishop, the successor of the blessed prince of the Apostles St. Peter, and vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth, the head of the whole church on earth, and doctor and master of all Christians; and do confess, that all who deny obedience to the said Roman bishop, the Vicar of Christ, are transgressors of the divine commands, and cannot attain to eternal life.